When a student's marital status changes, his or her dependency status
remains unchanged for the rest of the award year. So a student
who gets divorced or becomes a widow or widower after the application
date remains independent for the rest of the award year.

But what happens to this student in the next year, if he or she was
independent only by virtue of being married? The regulations
indicate that such a student becomes dependent again.
For example, on page AVG-23 of the 2007-2008 Application and
Verification Guide it states: "A
student who was independent only because he was married
becomes dependent for the next award year if he divorces and
cannot answer yes to any of the dependency questions."

However, many financial aid administrators feel uncomfortable with
such a reversion to dependent student status, and will use a
dependency override if the student is genuinely self-supporting. Self
sufficiency is not enough on its own to justify a dependency override,
but many financial aid administrators feel that death of a spouse or a
divorce after several years of marriage represents an unusual
circumstance that merits an override.

More financial aid administrators will grant a dependency override
after death of a spouse than after divorce.
This is probably because of the famous statistic that half of all
marriages eventually end in divorce. Financial aid administrators
figure that since divorce is so common, it doesn't represent an
unusual circumstance.
However, the
US Census Bureau's February 2002 report,
Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 1996,
showed that although approximately half of all marriages are projected
to end in divorce, less than 5% of men and 12% of women age 25 and
under are divorced. Moreover, even though the number of divorces per
year is a little less than half the number of marriages, the annual
divorce rate is only 2% and less than a quarter of people who have
ever been married have ever been divorced (see George Barna, The
Future of the American Family). So divorce is a relatively
rare occurrence, especially among college students age 25 and under.

Documentation consists of a copy of the marriage certificate and
either the death certificate or the divorce decree or separation
agreement.

Financial aid administrators should also consider an
income adjustment to change the income reported on the FAFSA to
reflect just the student's income by separating out the deceased's
income or replacing the income with estimated award year income.

Note that a student who is separated is still considered married for
the purpose of determining dependency status, and so should still be
considered independent. See, for example, page AVG-23 of the 2007-2008
Application and Verification Guide.